Reviled by many but never boring, Cosell was a groundbreaking figure in American television.

In My Time

A Personal and Political Memoir

Dick Cheney

Threshold Editions, $35

The outspoken former vice president's accounting of the Bush Administration's War on Terrorism.

Instant City

Life and Death in Karachi

Steve Inskeep

Penguin Press, $27.95

A vibrant portrait of the one of the world's fastest-growing, politically complex cities by the co-host of NPR's Morning Edition.

Into the Blue

American Writing on Aviation and Spaceflight

Edited by Joseph J. Corn

Library of America, $40

This collection includes essays by Benjamin Franklin, Charles Lindbergh, Amelia Earhart and Chris Jones, who recalls being marooned on the International Space Station.

It Calls You Back

An Odyssey Through Love, Addiction, Revolutions and Healing

Luis J. Rodriguez

Touchstone, $24.99

The author of "Always Running" chronicles his journey from gang member to his place as a noted figure in Chicago literature and American letters.

I Want My MTV

The Uncensored History of the Music Video Revolution

Craig Marks and Rob Tannenbaum

Dutton, $29.95

An oral history of the pop culture phenomenon that now plays everything but popular music.

Jack Kennedy

Elusive Hero

Chris Matthews

Simon & Schuster, $27.50

Kennedy loved courage but never wanted to be alone, never to be bored. Matthews offers a new assessment of the 35th president.

Jacqueline Kennedy

Historic Conversations on Life With John F. Kennedy

Caroline Kennedy and Michael Beschloss

Hyperion, $60

Shortly after her husband's assassination, Jacqueline Kennedy recorded seven interviews on her life with JFK. Now, 50 years after his inauguration, the material has been released on CDs with accompanying transcripts.

Jerusalem

The Biography

Simon Sebag Montefiore

Alfred A. Knopf, $35

A rich account of how the small, remote town became the Holy City and the key to peace in the Middle East.

John Huston

Courage and Art

Jeffrey Meyers

Random House, $30

The acclaimed biographer of Ernest Hemingway and Humphrey Bogart, among many others, turns to the filmmaker best known for "The Maltese Falcon" and "The Treasure of the Sierra Madre."

Killing Lincoln

The Shocking Assassination That Changed America

Bill O'Reilly & Martin Dugard

Henry Holt, $28

TV host and commentator Bill O'Reilly teams up with bestselling author Martin Dugard to describe the events surrounding the assassination of Abraham Lincoln.

The Language Wars

A History of Proper English

Henry Hitchings

Farrar, Straus & Giroux, $28

An examination of the rules of grammar, regional accents and political correctness in the battlefield that is the English language.

The Letters of Ernest Hemingway, 1907-1922

Edited by Sandra Spanier and Robert W. Trogdon

Cambridge University Press, $40

This first volume of Hemingway's letters reveals a more complex person than his tough-guy public persona suggested.

Life Upon These Shores

Looking at African American History, 1513-2008

Henry Louis Gates Jr.

Alfred A. Knopf, $50

A richly illustrated book tracing the African American experience from the arrival of the conquistadors to the election of Barack Obama.

The Long Night

William L. Shirer and the Rise and Fall of the Third Reich

Steve Wick

Palgrave/Macmillan, $27

An American journalist's firsthand encounters with the Nazis after starting, in the 1930s, the Berlin bureau of Edward R. Murrow's CBS News.

The Magic of Reality

How We Know What's Really True

Richard Dawkins

Free Press, $29.99

The world's leading evolutionary biologist explains a wide range of natural phenomena.

The Man Who Couldn't Eat

A Memoir

Jon Reiner

Gallery Books, $25

The author explores our complex and often-contradictory relationship with food as he tells the story of his agonizing battle with Crohn's disease.

Mrs. Nixon

A Novelist Imagines a Life

Ann Beattie

Scribner, $26

The novelist wonders what it was like to be married to a hugely ambitious and flawed man.

My Song

A Memoir

Harry Belafonte with Michael Shnayerson

Alfred A. Knopf, $30.50

A forthright memoir that traces the singer's career and his larger concerns with racial justice.

This holiday season, what will you give the book lovers in your life? Our books gift guide offers a variety of choices -- in books (new fiction, nonfiction, children's and more) and other ideas -- to help make your decisions easier. Holiday Books & Gift Ideas This holiday season, what will you...